


One Fell Swoop

by The_Scathefire_Seer



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: A concerning number of juice boxes, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, But that bit comes later, Canon-Typical Violence, Confusion, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, Miscommunication, Multi, Mutual Pining, Not Canon Compliant, Not Canon-Compliant Post Episode 20, Prophetic Visions, Rating May Change, Sharing a Bed, Super bom-bom, There is some gore in the first chapter so heads up, They're super gay my dudes, This Abomination is a shapeshifter but not the mimic, Trans Duck Newton, non-canon backstory, unexpected transformation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2019-11-18 02:20:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18111284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Scathefire_Seer/pseuds/The_Scathefire_Seer
Summary: Beware the light that changes fateAnd that which twists the augur’s eyeOdd things have come about of lateAll in vain with want to tryForce them not to hesitateTowards such places they must goAnd when a lonely heart elateStand back in wonder oh,Ye of little faith**Hiatus Update: Will continue once finals are over on May 10th**





	1. And Away We Go

**Author's Note:**

> Originally titled "The Ridiculous AU That Could". 
> 
> A brief heads up, this chapter entails some body horror, abomination-style, beginning with "It's doing it again!" and ending just before "That should do it!". It picks up again at "Both of their voices were nearly drowned out" and then ends at "Apparently this new form".

It was, Indrid would admit, the light that brought his attention back to Kepler. He had not been closely monitoring the pine guards’ collective futures since the days immediately following the cottonwood incident and the sinkhole in the middle of town—the thought of which still sent a spike of anxiety through his chest anytime he remembered a particularly bad outcome—and so he nearly missed it at first. He was still a bit irked with the trio for stealing his spectacles, even if he had known by the time Duck punched him that the chances of retaining his disguise were slim. It didn’t help that he  knew the reason they’d been collecting odds and ends either, instead he was especially annoyed knowing Heathcliff was still trying to one-up him in some way or another.

 

Prior to officially becoming the court’s seer, Indrid had spent a good amount of his free time learning how to enchant items, specializing in illusionary and displacement magic. He’d even collaborated with Heathcliff once or twice when he was still an apprentice, and the two of them had come up with some delightfully unique things. Then there was a series of events that led to their falling out, and from then on Indrid was very much not welcome in "The Enchanter’s" workspace. The two had taken subtle digs at each other over the next few centuries, until the time came for Indrid to cross through the gate to Earth. Traditionally, Sylvans going through the gate received their disguises from Heathcliff, who would design something unique based off their particular needs and some basic preferences. For these items, "The Enchanter" prided himself on providing a balance of functionality, tact, and aesthetic appeal.

Indrid had not needed to look in to the future to know that this would not be the case with his own departure.

 

Indeed, when Indrid was presented with his disguise he’d had to physically restrain himself from recoiling at the sight of what Heathcliff had oh-so _generously_ gifted him.

 

They were gloves.

 

Indrid _hated_ wearing gloves.

 

To make matters worse, the gloves appeared to be impossibly stiff, trimmed about the wrist with a thick ring of lace that had made Indrid’s skin itch just to look at. They were embroidered with a sickly, yellow thread that Indrid found to be positively unseemly, and the buttons underneath the lace were gaudy at best.

 

The gloves were, in short, hideous.

 

Of course, ugly coloring aside, nothing about the design would appear especially strange to an unknowing sylph. Gloves seemed practical, they were apparently in-style in the human world and would offer some small degree of protection against windchill, and lace was well regarded as an accessory for people of good status. As it was however, the majority of the court members present knew full well of the simmering animosity between himself and the artificer, and an air of uncertainty held the room.

 

To this day, Indrid did not know what his human form would have looked like had he taken Heathcliff’s disguise, as there were exactly zero futures where he deigned to put those damned things on his hands.

 

Instead, Indrid had allowed himself a small grin, reaching one set of clawed hands into his satchel and popping open the slim, sturdy case within.

 

"While I thank Heathcliff for his... _ingenuity_ in this matter, I would thank the court dearly to inform our generous artificer that his services will not be necessary. In preparation for my departure, I took the liberty of crafting something a bit more quality for my travels," he’d said. With that, he had placed a pair of brilliantly polished, scarlet lensed spectacles onto his face, transforming seamlessly into the human disguise he used to this day. Indrid had crossed through the gate to Earth not two hours later, a few final things to attend to before he could officially be sent off, and had begun his new life content in the knowledge that, for all intents and purposes, _he_ had gotten the last word.

 

Until now.

 

So yes, to say the least, Indrid was a little bit vexed over the whole situation.

 

He was not so vexed however as not to notice the glaring flash of light that was slowly but surely consuming more and more of the pine guards’ futures. And so, attention turned once more to the small town of Kepler, he settled in with his notebook and a mug of eggnog to start sketching whatever absurd slew of futures were sure to emerge as the pine guard pressed resolutely forward.

 

...

 

"Duck, on your left!" Aubrey shouted as the abomination whirled around for another attack.

 

"Got it!" He called back, successfully avoiding the monster’s clawed fist as it took another swing at him. He struggled to catch his breath as he moved out of range, ignoring a mocking _tsk_ from Beacon. "Ned! Can you take the shot?"

 

"Not yet!" Ned answered from the outcropping a few yards away. "You need to draw it to the center of the clearing."

 

"Fuck," Duck swore as the hulking abomination roared, a spray of embers singeing the ground below as another of Aubrey’s carefully shaped fireballs hit the creature head-on. Its attention temporarily diverted, Duck took the opportunity to back up towards the center of the clearing.

 

"Hey! Tall, dark, and fugly!" Duck shouted. "Over here!" The abomination, which had been growing increasingly frustrated with Aubrey’s fireball-and-dodge technique, whipped its head around with frightening speed, neck bent at an unnatural angle that made Duck’s stomach lurch. The monster’s form rippled unnervingly as it turned fully towards him, and Aubrey yelped as the creature’s eyes began to glow bright red.

 

"It’s doing it again!" She warned, jumping out of the way as its grotesque form began to contract and morph before their eyes. The sound of tearing sinew and cracking bones echoed revoltingly across the clearing, and Duck felt bile rise in his throat. The gruesome transformation continued as it took several slow, measured steps towards him, its movements backed by a low, guttural growl. Red eyes locked onto his own, and Duck felt his blood run cold as something eerily similar to a _smile_ flashed across the monster’s face.

 

"That should do it!" Ned called, levelling his narf blaster. "Duck, clear out."

 

Duck didn’t need to be told twice, double-timing it backwards towards the tree line as fast as he could without tripping. _‘Cause apparently that’s a thing I do now,_ he thought bitterly to himself. He saw Aubrey raise her hands for another strike, her next fireball successfully knocking the abomination the last foot or so needed into the middle of the clearing. The monster’s new shape was still forming, masses of warped flesh pulling themselves into what looked like twin spinal plates. _Looks kinda like a stegosaurus,_ Duck noted dimly. This abomination had been a particularly nasty case, changing from one monstrous shape to the next seemingly without reason, and he was grateful that their hunt to stop it was finally coming to an end. Luckily for them, it seemed that the creature was always a little slower in the seconds just after it changed.

 

Out of the corner of his eye Duck saw Ned refocus his aim with the narf blaster, adjusting the shot to account for the creature’s new shape as it finally stilled. Aubrey appeared to be rapidly backing away from the thing, getting herself clear of the "blast zone" as Ned’d put it, and Duck braced himself for the sound of shots being fired.

 

The sound never came.

 

Instead, several _other_ things happened in quick succession.

 

Ned yelled "What the _HELL?_ " Scrambling not to drop the gun in his shock. Almost simultaneously Aubrey joined in with a horrified shout of, _"Oh crap!_ ", both of her hands alighting in flames. Both of their voices were nearly drowned out however by a sickening _snap_ Duck was sure would haunt him until the day he died.

 

The protuberances he’d mistaken for scales burst, showering the surrounding area with bits of oozing flesh that Duck just barely avoided being struck by. In their place rose two horrifying imitations of wings—twisted, painful looking things—that stretched menacingly into the air as the creature roared. Apparently this new form was quicker than last, because no sooner had Duck processed the basics of the scene before him than the abomination was launching itself off the ground, easily avoiding Ned’s frantic shots. For a moment the abomination’s wings all but eclipsed the late afternoon sun, and it was in this sudden shadow that Duck found himself trapped, utterly paralyzed as glowing eyes zeroed in on him once more. The monster screeched triumphantly, rising fast into the air until Duck had to shield his eyes against the light to see it clearly. It was at this point that a new voice—nearly out of breath—entered the clearing, one that Duck hadn’t heard in months.

 

"In approximately ten seconds that abomination is going to dive-bomb Duck and kill him. You all MIGHT WANT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT."

 

Well.

 

Shit.

 

Duck immediately raised his sword and began back tracking wildly, hoping if he could get to the trees in time that the monster wouldn’t have a straight shot at him. He dreaded the thought of what those claws would do to the forest, but right now it looked like there wasn’t much choice. Duck was pretty sure Aubrey had tried to buffet the thing away with a gust of wind, but the attack only succeeded in slowing the abomination down a bit as it started its death spiral towards him. He could hear Ned shouting something from his place on the outcropping but was too preoccupied with Beacon suddenly hissing demands at him to make out what.

 

_"Duck Newton, unless you wish to die a spineless coward, I suggest you hold me at the ready and dodge."_

 

"The hell do you think I’m doing?!" He snapped. He was close enough now to dodge behind some of the trees for cover and just barely leapt out of the way in time as the abomination bore down on him. The maneuver was a mixed success, and Duck succeeded in flinging himself safely out of the abomination’s reach as it crashed through the trees, claws scouring the Earth where Duck had stood mere seconds earlier. Unfortunately, the creature began viciously lashing out at the trees around it the moment it realized Duck was not impaled on its claws, and the ranger found himself trapped as the monster blocked his path back out to the clearing. The combined sound of cracking-crashing branches and enraged screaming from the abomination made his ears ring painfully, and it took Duck a moment to start scrambling to his feet, precious seconds lost as he leaned against a tree for support. Everything looked and felt like it was spinning, and for the millionth time Duck cursed the loss of his extra durability.

 

Beacon was snapping something at him, clearly agitated, but for all the world Duck couldn’t make out what it was. Everything was too loud and he was dizzy and something wet felt like it was running down the back of his neck and-ookay that was blood. The wet stuff was very much blood which meant his head was very much bleeding.

 

"That...probably isn’t good," Duck said, not realizing until a moment later that he’d spoken out loud.

 

 _"No, Duck Newton, that most certainly is not good,"_ Beacon fumed _. "If we are listing things that are exceptionally obvious, might I add that the monster you seek to slay is rapidly freeing itself of your companion’s ssspell?"_

 

"It’s- aww _shit_." The abomination, Duck realized, had in fact been held down by some kind of dirt magic (Earth magic? Aubrey would probably call it earth magic) that had attempted to hold it in place where it landed, but it was making quick work of freeing itself, clearly hell-bent on catching its prey. Just then, the abomination wrenched itself forward, head whipping around the area until its eyes landed on Duck.

 

 _"There is nowhere to run, Duck Newton,"_ Beacon informed him. _"Prepare yourself for battle!"_

 

As if to prove the sword’s point, Duck’s back hit the trunk of a tree. He winced, arms shaking as he took a step forward and lifted Beacon, trying to imitate the stance he’d practiced with Leo. The abomination cocked its head as it took in their relative positions, sickly, glowing eyes holding a little too much cunning for Duck’s liking. There was a moment where both of them were still, Duck’s focus narrowing down to just this, and his arms stopped shaking.

 

The creature bared its teeth, and lunged.

 

Duck steeled his nerves as the absurdly fast abomination rushed him, Beacon hissing _"Finally,"_ as Duck dodged and slashed at the creature, successfully landing a blow on the thing’s left forearm. He huffed out a small laugh of disbelief as the monster shrieked, its hulking form having difficulty turning around in the dense forest and failing to land a single hit on him. It was temporarily stuck, and Duck took the opportunity to dart forward and slash at one of its back legs, narrowly avoiding a large branch that came crashing down as the abomination’s wings beat at the dense foliage. He circled the monster, darting forward and back every time he could get a clear swing. The abomination was slowly breaking through Aubrey’s spell, which appeared to animate the ground closest to the creature wherever it went and wrapped earth and roots alike around its legs. Duck drew the monster towards a denser area of forest, hoping that it might eventually be too stuck to move. They were further from the clearing than he’d first realized, but Duck figured his strongest option was to distract the thing best he could while the others caught up, hopefully with a new plan.

 

 _"Again, Duck Newton!"_ Beacon crowed. _"Strike while your foe is incapacitated."_

 

"That’s the idea," Duck said, panting a bit as he raised the sword to strike again. He landed another hit at the creature’s legs, sickly, ichorous fluid now streaming from the thing’s wounds as it screeched. Its movements became more forceful, and Duck was forced to back up as several trees began to crack alarmingly, the enchantment seeming to give way as the monster fought back. He’d been so focused on the abomination that he’d failed to keep track of the damage being done to his immediate surroundings, and he realized with mounting alarm that the way back to the clearing was now a mess of fallen boughs and twisted branches. Behind him was a tall rock-face, and a quick glance up showed Duck that several heavy tree limbs were a mere tap from falling to the ground below, leaving him nowhere safe to take cover. The damn thing had boxed him in.

 

As if this realization weren’t bad enough, the abomination broke free at that moment, swinging around to face Duck once more. He took in the monster’s expression and felt something seize fearfully inside his chest. Gone was the smug baring of teeth from earlier, replaced now with cold, determined fury.

 

"Aww fuck," Duck swore, eyes searching frantically for any cover, anything he could use to deflect the tank of a monster about to start barreling towards him. Finding nothing, Duck Newton felt a wave of clarity wash over him as he made a decision.

 

The others were too far away to get to him before the creature made its move. There was nowhere to run, and he was out of time to come up with another plan. Duck squared his shoulders, raised Beacon the way Minerva had taught him to, and prayed to any force that might be listening that Jane and Winnie would forgive him for not saying goodbye if he didn’t make it out of this. Once again, the abomination lunged.

 

This time it did not miss.

 

...

 

It was, as Indrid would later reflect, one of the best outcomes the Pineguard could have hoped for, all things considered. This did nothing to ease anyone’s panic in the moment however, as screams both human and not rang out across the clearing. The horrifying sound of a falling tree echoed from the trail of wreckage the abomination had torn through the forest, and Indrid wasted no time in sprinting towards its source. Aubrey and Ned ran hot on his heels, calling out their compatriot’s name.

 

Indrid reached the tree line first, scanning through futures as quickly as he could for a way through the fallen boughs. While most of the trees remained standing, their lower branches lay in great heaps while other swung perilously overhead, preventing direct travel forward. The chaos from the approaching light in Indrid’s visions made it hard to think clearly as well, and it wasn’t until one of the trees began twisting that Indrid realized Aubrey was shouting at him to move out of the way. He quickly complied, trying once more to discern what exactly was going on as she frantically got to work clearing a path. The light in his visions wasn’t like the cottonwood beast, thank every star in Sylvain, meaning it didn’t reduce his visions to uncertain static. Instead, it was simply so volatile that a million potential futures seemed to spring into existence every few seconds, collapsing into nothingness so quick that Indrid could only catch the barest glimpses of what might occur. What he could see however was more than enough to worry him.

 

Duck, shouting at Beacon to _do something damn it_ as he dodged-

 

Duck, crying out in pain as a large branch landed on his leg with a sickening crunch-

 

Duck, swearing as he was tossed full force into a tree, blood soaking the bark as he stumbled forward-

 

Duck, repeating a whispered apology to someone or something unseen like a prayer-

 

Duck, unconscious and bloody as the abomination raised a clawed hand-

 

Duck, impaling the monster with his blade, a blood chilling scream echoing through the trees as it bared its teeth, determined to take the ranger down with it-

 

Another scream, this one unmistakably human, rang out, and Indrid froze in horror as he caught the quickest glimpse of rows of jagged teeth sinking into Duck’s arm and _pulling._

 

"That’ll have to be enough!" Aubrey yelled, casting one last tree branch aside as she began rushing forward. Indrid and Ned immediately followed suit, the latter of them having procured a first aid kit from who knows where in the time it had taken Aubrey to clear the way. Logically, Indrid knew the young mage had worked exceptionally fast, but right now every second felt like a lifetime. Indrid was suddenly hit with a vision of branches rushing towards a prone form on the ground, stopping just short of Duck Newton’s terrified face. The vision did not dissipate like the others, and Indrid felt a fresh wave of fear flood his veins as he began running faster.

 

"Aubrey Little, be careful!" Indrid warned as she kept pace ahead of them, spurred on by the continued sound of crashing branches and the abomination’s roar. "I cannot make out exactly what is happening, but all paths indicate a severe degree of peril-"

 

"No fucking shit,” Ned replied, huffing a little as they ran. Indrid didn’t bother to reply, as the three suddenly stopped short in the face of another swath of particularly brutalized forest. Too many of the broken limbs were spattered with blood or bits of the abomination’s physical form, and Indrid feared what state they’d find the ranger in. The sound of creaking wood echoed through the forest again, and Indrid just remembered to turn to the humans next to him and shout, “Duck will be okay!” before the spruce tree snapped.

 

…

 

Duck screamed as the abomination’s teeth tore into his arm, the jagged points hooking into his flesh and sending streaks of pain burning through his nervous system like fire. Despite the pain however, Duck kept Beacon’s blade lodged firmly in what he’d expected to be the abomination’s heart. He expected blood to seep out from the wound, tinging the air with the scent of rot and copper, but instead a faint glow seemed to be pulsing within the thing’s chest. He half expected the creature’s body to start disappearing in a whirl of smoke like in one of Ned’s over-dramatic horror movies, but instead the monster shook with a deep, rattling gasp before going perfectly still, teeth still very much embedded in Duck’s arm.

 

Duck, momentarily forgetting the loss of his strength, tried to pry the abomination’s jaw open, but instead only managed to scrape his knuckles on some of the creature’s shorter teeth. He nearly had a damn heart attack when the thing’s eyes suddenly pulsed bright red, certain that it was going to transform once more or just tear him to shreds right then and there. Instead,  its eyes remained glowing red for a solid minute before darkening once more, and so far staying that way. Thankfully, even if the abomination was somehow reanimated the trees that had crashed down in such a way that, while trapping Duck where he was, the abomination was also plinned down and was keeping it from otherwise slashing at him as they both bled out slowly.

 

...Right. Two trees had fallen down around him and he was bleeding out slowly.

 

Duck was pretty sure the head wound from earlier was starting to make his thought process foggy.

 

When the abomination had lunged at him, its ridged wings had snapped out, hitting an already battered tree full force. The sound of creaking wood had escaped both the monster and Duck’s notice however, as in seconds the ranger was stabbing the abomination through its maybe-heart, pulling from it an echoing screech. The enraged creature had brought a clawed hand up to swipe at him, and likely would have eviscerated him right then and there had the first tree not chosen that moment to give way, crashing down across its back and snapping at least one of its wings as the abomination was pinned under its weight. It struck several of the surrounding trees, one of which was already too weakened to sustain such a blow. It gave an alarming creak that drew out agonizingly slow before it suddenly cracked, and its boughs were rushing towards Duck so quick that only the first half of his life flashed before his eyes before it stopped just fucking short of absolutely crushing him. The rock face Duck had found himself cut off by a few minutes earlier had saved his life, as the fallen tree now leaned precariously against it, the lowest branches mere inches from his face. The abomination let out a strangled noise of pain, and Duck realized that while the tree hadn’t hit him, it had _definitely_ whacked the monster something good, bringing the total number of trees the damn thing had been hit by to two. It was at about that point that Duck first noticed the strange light coming from the abomination. Its glowing red eyes had begun to go dull, though its teeth remained firmly locked around his arm, and its gaze was unfocused. There came an exceptionally disgusting noise mixed with the sound of clinking metal as Beacon pulled itself from the abomination’s chest, silent for a moment before addressing him.

 

 _"Duck...Newton..."_ Beacon hissed, sounding genuinely exhausted in a way Duck had never heard before. _"This beast is strange indeed. Something…glows within its vessel even now, though I cannot determine the nature of its source.”_

 

“I think I might have any idea,” Duck said, thinking back to the previous abominations they’d faced. Although…didn’t the essence or whatever of the abominations generally disappear once they died? Before he could consider this further, Beacon interrupted his thoughts.   

 

_“While you remain a truly shameful excuse for a Chosen One, I will concede that in this case, I do not know for certain that even a real warrior could have bested this creature with any sort of ease."_

 

"I-I don’t know how to respond to that," Duck said, looking at the sword in dazed confusion. "Also, don’t know that it’s quite bested yet-"

 

 _"It is dying,"_ Beacon informed him. _"I..._ we _saw to that."_

 

"Oh. Well that’s, that’s good to hear..." He trailed off, dimly noting the dark spots slowly collecting at the edges of his vision.

 

Beacon laughed quietly. " _Yes, Duck Newton, it is very "good to hear", I would say. Very good indeed. A job_ nearly _well done."_ The sword’s tone lacked its usual biting disapproval, and Duck was suddenly struck with the full implication of Beacon’s words.

 

"Wait, wait a second. Beacon, Beacon are you _complimentin’_ me? Is that, did you just fucking compliment me?!" Duck asked. Exhaustion and pain aside, his voice rose in disbelief. “I don’t—D’you know something I don’t? Am, am I dying? Aww shit, please tell me you’re not bein’ nice for once ‘cause I’m dying, that would suck. Or, oh fuck _you’re_ not dying are you? Can you die, Beacon—”

 

 _“Silence…Duck Newton…”_ Beacon sighed, sounding a little more like the sword Duck knew. _“I am simply noting that…hmmm, despite your general ineptitude, you did not fail miserably in battle today.”_

 

“I…thank you?” Duck said. Beacon ignored this, simply humming noncommittally.

 

 _“Do not think that this excuses you from all the work you must do to become remotely less embarrassing,”_ he said. “ _Now, I must…recharge. Do not perish in the meantime, Duck. Newton.”_ With that, Beacon rolled up, apparently done with the conversation. Before Duck could work through any of what the sword had said however, or figure out how exactly he was going to extract himself out from under the tree one-handed, he was distracted by the sound of two wonderfully familiar voices shouting his name.

 

…

 

Despite the fact that he _knew_ Duck would not be harmed, the sight of the tree falling in real time still froze Indrid to the spot in horror. As it had in his vision, the tree’s descent was halted as it hit a steep face of rock and Indrid breathed a sigh of relief.

 

The moment the crashing stopped however, Aubrey and Ned were both shouting.

 

“Holy fucking shit—"

 

“You’re SURE that that didn’t just crush him?!”

 

“Yes. It came very, very close, but Duck Newton is not crushed and is in no immediate danger of being mauled. He is, however, still dealing with the abomination from what I can see,” Indrid explained quickly, looking ahead for the best way past the wreckage of not one, but two fallen trees. The light still consumed the near future, but Indrid felt some of the tension leave his shoulders as he saw next to no paths before that where the ranger perished. There was also no sound from the abomination, and Indrid strongly suspected that the creature was not long for this world. “It does not appear to be moving much,” he relayed to them, “which I take is a good sign. Everything gets…overwhelmed past the point of us approaching Duck.”

 

“What exactly do you mean by “overwhelmed”?” Ned asked, gaze flickering between Indrid and the mess of tree limbs.

 

“It’s hard to explain, but soon all paths become more or less consumed in a bright light my foresight cannot seem to pierce through,” he replied. “And before you say anything, Ned Chicane. please know that I do not appreciate your comment that my visions are, and I quote, “About as helpful as a Magic 8-ball written in Braille.”

 

“Well I wasn’t going to say it _out loud_ ,” Ned argued.

 

“Debatable.”

 

“Hey, hey guys?” Aubrey said, waving to get their attention. “Nice as it is to know that Duck isn’t literally a pancake, can we please find a way to _actually get to him now?”_

 

“Yes, of course,” Indrid replied. “We will need to be careful not to shift the trees too much, but beyond that it is more or less a straight shot.”

 

“So we could use the gap there?” She asked, pointing to a spot between the fallen limbs. Indrid paused for a brief moment, then nodded.

 

“Yes, I see no likely futures where anything heavy collapses on the three of us or further endangers your fellow pineguard.”

 

“…You know, when you say it like that I suddenly become a lot more nervous that-"

 

“ **that is exactly what is going to happen,”** Indrid overlapped. “It is an unfortunate oxymoron of a side effect, I’m afraid.”

 

“No kidding,” Ned replied, walking towards the gap Aubrey had pointed out. “We really need to work on your sales pitch, friend Indrid.”

 

“How are you so calm right now??” Aubrey asked, following close behind as Ned ducked beneath one of the lower branches and began shuffling forward.

 

“What? You heard the Mothman, Duck’s not squished or shredded! When you get to be a little older you’ll ask yourself, what more can anyone really ask for in this life?”

 

 _He isn’t calm,_ Indrid thought as he walked after them. _He’s deflecting_. _There are futures, rare as they became once I intervened, where this was the incident that broke his resolve. Losing either of you would ruin him._ Indrid had seen as much from the worse outcomes of the cottonwood incident.

 

The three soon emerged from the other side of the wrecked trees, and Indrid immediately zeroed in on where Duck Newton lay, boxed in but otherwise unharmed by the second tree. The abomination had been struck down mid-strike by said tree it would seem, several of its larger branches having broken off and more still actively caught in the beast’s mangled wings. The monster was taller than the lowest slope of the rock face, and Indrid imagined it must have slammed into the abomination’s back full force before coming to rest on the rocks. Good. The horrible mockery of a thing deserved it.

 

Unfortunately, while the trees had not harmed the ranger, said abomination certainly had. Its jaws were still clamped around Duck’s right arm, and Indrid cringed preemptively when Aubrey and Ned called out to him. Sure enough, Duck’s head whipped up and he instinctively moved to try and see them better, no doubt agitating the monster’s hold on him. Indrid could hear his hiss of pain across the few yards that separated them.

 

“Are you alright?” Aubrey asked, freezing in her tracks as though she might have somehow made things worse.

 

“Beat up pretty good, but I’ll live,” he answered. “Are you okay? That thing got pretty close to you back in the clearing.

 

Indrid could hear Duck swear as he shifted again, and was unsurprised when Aubrey rushed the rest of the way towards him, assuring the ranger that she was fine, Ned not far behind.

 

“Be careful ya’ll,” Ducked warned, wincing from other injuries they couldn’t yet see. “This thing’s just about dead, but Beacon said there’s still something weird going on inside it.”

 

That caught Indrid’s attention.

 

“Weird how?” Ned asked, turning to go examine the abomination’s corpse, Aubrey at Duck’s side and looking for the best way to get him out from under the tree.

 

“I’m not really sure,” he replied. “Beacon stabbed the thing pretty deep, and when he, uh, withdrew from its chest—”

 

“Eww,” Aubrey commented, carefully prodding at one of the branches.

 

“Yeah, very eww. Anyways, he said that there’s some kinda glowy thing still stuck inside it, which makes me think maybe not everyone’s left the building, so to speak.” With the other abominations they’d faced, there had been a distinct light or essence inside each of them, and Duck figured this one was no exception. “Beacon said it’s basically dead though, so not sure why that is?”

 

“It is strange,” Indrid agreed, frowning as he made his way towards the group. “That branch, no not—yes, very good, that branch and the one just below it can both be moved and Duck should be able to sit up a bit more— _careful of your arm Duck Newton_ —Then move the branch to his right slowly back so we can take a look at getting the abomination’s jaw to unclamp.”  Aubrey began doing as he instructed, and Indrid turned his attention to the creature. Duck would need medical care very soon, but something about the situation was disturbing Indrid. He could see no futures where the monster rose, but the light was so very close now it was hard to tell. He was about to voice as much, when a shout from Aubrey and Duck rang out.

 

“Woah! Is _that_ the glowy thing you were talking about?!” Aubrey exclaimed, she and Duck—to the best of his ability—leaning away from the cloud of orange light now pulsing out from the wound in the monster’s chest like smoke, dissipating within a few inches of where it hit open air. Ned, who had been prodding near the base of the creature’s wings, rushed over and whistled at the sight of the odd light now emanating even brighter.  

 

“It’s not hurting you in any way, is it?” Indrid asked, only now closing the distance between him and Duck. He had already seen so many visions of the ranger’s wounds, he dreaded seeing just how bad they were up close. Despite knowing that the threads of possibility could only be interfered with so much, Indrid could not help feeling that he should have been able to prevent at least some of the pain Duck was experiencing.

 

“No, not hurtin’ me, just kind of…scritchy? If that makes sense? Like, it’s like having a bunch of pine needles or something brush up against you really lightly,” he explained, brow furrowed as he attempted to convey what exactly he was feeling.

 

“Weird, I don’t feel anything,” Aubrey said. She regarded the light like she was calculating the exact odds of something, and Indrid saw what she was going to do a moment too late to warn against it as Aubrey suddenly plunged her hand into the middle of the light.  

 

Absolutely nothing happened.

 

“Huh,” she said, waving her hand around a bit, ignoring Ned and Duck’s twin noises of protest at the movement. “I thought that would at least do _something_.”

 

“Dang it, Aubrey!” Duck exclaimed, looking extra exasperated. “I just told you that this light, which is coming out of an _abomination’s heart_ , was givin’ me a weird feeling, and you just stick your hand right in the middle of it?”

 

She shrugged. “I figured Indrid would stop me if anything too bad was going to happen.” Duck’s mismatched eyes turned to Indrid, surprised, almost like he’d forgotten the seer was there. There was an awkward moment of silence before Duck spoke up.

 

“Uhh hey man, how uh…Ah shit, I haven’t even thanked you yet for saving my hide back there. Thanks for that.. Also, unrelated note, where

 

 **“—the hell have you been?”** Indrid finished. “Laying low while I made some adjustments on my new spectacles, mostly.” Duck’s face flushed and Aubrey was suddenly very interested in looking anywhere but at Indrid, while Ned took the opportunity to crack open the med kit he’d brought along and busied himself with several rolls of gauze.

 

“Rrrrrriiiiiight, uhm, your-your glasses, huh? That-that’s umm, nice-er, fuck, I mean, weird that umm, wow you wear glasses?” He finally squeaked out, Aubrey facepalming next to him.

 

“I do not even know how to begin to respond to that,” Indrid deadpanned. “But I do know you three traded my glasses to Heathcliff.”

 

“Sorry..?” Aubrey offered.

 

“No you aren’t,” Indrid said conversationally.

 

“He’s got you there,” Ned chuckled.

 

“Oh shut up, Ned! You’re the one with a room full of stolen stuff!” Ned’s face immediately fell at that, Indrid noticed, and he clammed up as he focused back on the med kit.

 

“We should probably be getting that thing’s teeth out of Duck’s arm,” he said. Indrid blinked, belatedly realizing that this was not one of the timelines where they had already addressed this matter.

 

“Oh shit,” Duck replied, startled. “Is it, is it bad that I sort of forgot that that was still there? I mean, I honestly can’t even feel it anymore, which is kinda better from a “holy shit I’m in pain perspective”, but like, not super great medically speaking..?”

 

“Yeah, that’s not fucking good, Duck,” Aubrey answered, staring at him incredulously.

 

“Heh, guess you’re right there,” he chuckled half-heartedly. “I uh, I am startin’ to feel a little more light-headed too now that I think about it. Hey Indrid, you don’t see a future where I bleed out or anything right?”

 

“No…” Indrid answered slowly, now actively struggling to see through the light in his visions, which he noted with some concern was similar in color to the light still steadily pouring from the abomination. “Though I do see that the quickest way to free you from this situation involves Ned and Aubrey pushing the abomination’s lower jaw down as I pry its upper jaw, well, up.”

 

“…That’s going to hurt a whole bunch, ain’t it?” Duck said.

 

“It is going to hurt a whole bunch,” Indrid confirmed. “After that however, we should be able to finish extracting you entirely. The trees around you are...surprisingly stable, all things considered.” 

 

“Yeah alright,” Duck sighed. He looked at Aubrey and Ned, who were both regarding him sympathetically at the news. “You heard him, guys. Let’s get this over with.” 

 

A few minutes later Aubrey and Ned were in position on either side of Duck, hands braced but not yet pushing down on the seemingly very dead abomination’s lower jaw. Ned had given Duck a bit of wood from the med kit to bite down on, which Indrid could only assume would be useful. They were rapidly approaching the point at which Indrid could no longer see the pine guards’ futures, and light was still spilling from the abomination’s killing wound. It did not seem to be doing anything, harmful or otherwise, but the fact that Indrid could glean nothing about it was more than enough to make him wary. There wasn’t much of anything that could be done about it now though, and so the seer returned his attention back to the task at hand.

 

“Duck Newton, are you ready?” Indrid asked, already knowing the answer but feeling it was better to check in such a situation. Duck nodded, immediately frowning at the pain it caused. Indrid looked at the other humans for confirmation, then turned his focus to the abomination’s teeth. They were slightly curved as he’d seen in his vision, and he did not envy Duck the pain removing them would cause. Before anyone could lose their nerve Indrid took hold of the monster’s upper jaw. 

 

“One,” he counted, “two,  _three—“_ using all the strength he retained in this form, Indrid yanked the creature’s jaw up. After a moment of resistance, the wickedly sharp teeth came loose on both sides from Duck’s arm, and the distinct sound of snapping wood and a muffled scream came from Duck as the three stumbled back a bit. 

 

“FuckfuckfuckfuckfUCKTHATHURTS,” Duck shouted through the now splintered piece of wood in his mouth as Ned quickly sprayed antibiotics over the teeth marks. Blood welled up as soon as the teeth were out, but Aubrey was ready with gauze and bandages like they’d planned, and soon Duck’s arm was bandaged enough for the trip back to the lodge. As Indrid had promised, getting Duck out from the fallen trees was relatively easy now that he was not attached to the abomination, and within a few minutes Indrid was helping the ranger to his feet while Aubrey coaxed the necessary branches into bending away from Duck while Ned held other branches up to give her a better view. The strange cloud of light finally seemed to be fading, and Indrid wondered if perhaps the futures ahead would now become similarly clear.

 

 It was at this moment that two mistakes were made.

 

First, as he leaned down to take Duck’s uninjured arm in his own, Indrid’s crystal pendant slipped out from under the neck of his shirt, enabling it to swing back and forth through the last remnants of light and instantly sending a painful _jolt_ rushing across Indrid’s skin.

 

Second, when Indrid jerked backed in surprise Duck immediately tried to steady him, resulting in the ranger losing his footing and sending the two toppling to the ground.  

 

Duck landed half on top of Indrid, knocking the breath out of him, and it was then that the blinding flash of light Indrid had been so preoccupied with burst forth from none other than the pendant around his neck. All three of the pineguard members shouted in surprised as the light overtook everything, forcing them to close their eyes against the strength of its luminosity. Even from behind his eyelids though, Indrid felt like he was staring directly at the sun, unable to tear his gaze away as excruciating pain bore into his skull. His mind reeled as he was suddenly bombarded with seemingly endless new possibilities, flickering through his mind’s eye like an old film reel gone completely off the rails. In all of them was Duck, at Indrid’s Winnebago, downing a juice box like it was the best thing he’d ever had; walking stiffly through the forest, bundled up in too many layers; standing outside the Cryptonomica, laughing so hard he had to brace himself on his knees as he doubled over; in his own apartment, looking up at Indrid in wonder and, and _trust_ of all things; cursing loudly as a sudden noise made his antennae twitch—

 

Wait.

 

No.

 

That, that wasn’t right. There was _no way_ that could possibly be right—

 

But the visions kept flooding in, faster and faster until Indrid could not begin to consciously process the sheer wealth of them, only lie frozen as scene after scene played out in increasing acceleration, catching just enough to confirm that in not one or two but _every_ single future, Duck Newton was _no longer human_.

 

Indrid Cold, a centuries old seer long used to knowing the minute details of near endless series of events, knew in this moment only one thing.

 

Something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.

 


	2. Half-Truths are a Seer’s Best Friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had intended for these wonderful fools to actually reach the lodge in this chapter, but instead got caught up in writing Indrid’s truly wild affinity for denial and some good ol’ ranger danger time.

Indrid couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe at first for the after shocks still wreaking havoc on his mind. He became dimly aware of someone shouting something nearby, and another voice, further away. Indrid’s ears were ringing too much to make out what, and it was with great difficulty that he managed to lift his head. His sight, both present and future, were still reeling, struggling to come back into focus. Indrid forced himself to take deep breaths and conciously zeroed his sight in on the next 24 hours only, just as he’d been taught to do when training as a court seer. The futures laid themselves out more like threads he could conciously follow this way, and less like the constant, flickering array of television screens he’s described to the guard. The sounds of the forest filtered back to him gradually, accompanied by the voice of one very panicked pineguard.

 

"-drid, Indrid snap out of it we need to get help!" Indrid blinked, the ringing in his ears subsiding all at once as the world immidiately around him snapped back into place. Aubrey Little was shouting at him, worried and frightened and definitely about to slap Indrid in an attempt to rouse him from his stupor. He quickly raised a hand to prevent said event from coming to pass, making the young pineguard jump in surprise.

  

"My apologies," he croaked out, sitting up. "The sudden bombardment of new futures coupled with the light disoriented me quite a bit." Aubrey looked at him in concern as she helped him to his feet, but before she could speak Indrid remembered something very important about said visions. "Oh no. Where-where is Duck? Aubrey, where is Duck? _Is he okay?"_

 

Aubrey held up her free hand in a calm-down gesture. "He’s...kind of okay? We think he’s stable for now since Ned staunched the bleeding, oh, right, Duck hit his head at some point but _didn’t deign to tell us,_ and-"

 

"- **he probably needs a hospital** ," Indrid echoed, frowning as his future sight finally started to focus enough to be of use. Even restricting himself to the near future was proving difficult though, the inunmerable strings of possibility slipping in and out of his grasp and blurring together any time he tried to parce too many details. The seer managed to grab the most pertinent information based off the main variations of what Aubrey might say next, but quickly let the threads go as his head began to pound again.

 

"I take it that a hospital visit is decidedly out of the question, however," Indrid said, raising a hand to straighten his spectacles.

 

"Yep," Aubrey confirmed, grimacing. "There’s not really any way to explain a bite mark like that without people getting suspicious, is there?"

 

"There is not," he agreed. He was silent for a moment, and realized that Aubrey was still looking at him worriedly. "I am a bit out of sorts at the moment," Indrid explained, knowing she was about to ask if he was alright. "I saw a rather overwhelming number of futures all at once—so many that it was impossible for me to begin to process them all—and my mind is...playing catch up, you could say. The futures are still pilling up, and so for my own sanity I am attempting not to look at them too closely just yet." Aubrey simply nodded at his explanation, much to Indrid’s relief.

 

It was not the entire truth, or even the majority of it, but from the way Aubrey Little was acting —and what Indrid himself could see—it was clear nothing about Duck Newton had visibly changed...yet. (In all honestly, Indrid still couldn’t quite believe what he’d seen, ironic as that was.) There was no need to add to the current situation with his visions, right? Especially when not a single one of the paths he’d seen in the next 24 hours had shown Duck or the others in any sort of peril. _Honestly_ , _It couldn’t possibly have been in every timeline_ , Indrid tried to reason with himself. _Nothing is ever so set in stone._

 

Besides, Indrid hadn’t been lying when he’d said he would need more time before he could sort through the plethora of new futures. The awful headache brewing in the back of his skull was a constant reminder of that. Really, he was just being responsible, waiting until he could gather more of the facts.

  

Yes.

  

Responsible was a good word for it.

 

Indrid took a moment to look around and noticed that the sun was nearly down. He must have been out of it for nearly an hour then...how embarassing. Between this and the goatman fiasco, the odds of Duck or Ned joking about him "sleeping on the job" were nearly unavoidable. Speaking of... "Where is Duck, by the way?" Indrid asked.

 

"Oh, Ned and I got him to his truck. Ned’s keeping an eye on Duck to make sure he doesn’t pass out again while I came back to get you," she replied. "You didn’t black out like him, but you were suuuuuper out of it when the light faded." Indrid realized that Aubrey was still bracing him, and felt a bit silly as he noticed he was still swaying on his feet.

 

"Speaking of," Aubrey continued as she began leading Indrid towards where he could only assumed Duck’s truck was parked, "what was the deal with _that_? Your crystal looked like it was going to explode it got so bright! And when it faded Duck was out cold while you—"

 

"— **looked like you’d seen a ghost** ," Indrid finished for her. _A ghost would have been mundande in comparison,_ he thought _._ "Like I said, too many futures at once." In this timeline, Aubrey remarkably did not press the matter any further. Indrid’s hands itched for his sketchbook, so used to crumpling up the pages of timelines that did not come to pass. Once Indrid checked on Duck himself he would go back to his winnebago and begin making sense of it all, he decided.

  

Within a few short minutes they were back across the clearing, Indrid quickly catching sight of where Ned was standing just outside the backseat of Duck’s work vehicle.

  

"Ah, there you two are!" Ned called. "See, Duck? I told you our resident seer was just fine." Duck, apparently propped up in the backseat of his truck, said something back that Indrid couldn’t catch. Indrid felt his heart warm a bit at the knowledge that Duck had been worried about him, though he knew such a feeling was ridiculous. The pineguard was a group devoted to ensuring the safety of others, it only made sense that they would seek to ensure the well-being of their allies. Ned sighed dramatically, pulling Indrid from his thoughts.

 

"Friend Indrid, could you please ride in the back of the car so a certain worry wart can see for _himself_ that you are fine?" Despite the futures that had shown this exact situation, the question gave Indrid pause.

  

"You want me to go with you?" He asked as he and Aubrey came to a stop only a few feet from the truck. In twenty percent of the futures this led to the pineguard banding together to convince him to go to the Infurmary, in thirty they offered to drop him off a bit closer to the campground at his insistence, in another ten Ned offered to treat the gash Indrid had, he noted dimly, apparently sustained on his left arm, and the remaining forty were still up in the air, depending mostly on a certain ranger.

 

Lo and behold, Duck chose that moment to lean forward so he could see Indrid, and he felt a fresh wave of guilt wash over him at the sight of so many cuts and bruises littering Duck’s skin.

 

"Indrid, no way in hell are we letting you just wander on back to your ‘bago without making sure you don’t have a concussion or nothin’." Duck frowned at him, doing his best to look strict. He might even have pulled the expression off, were it not for the Spiderman bandaid stuck to the side of his face. Apparently the pineguards’ first-aide kit needed to be re-stocked.

 

"Duck Newton, I can assure you that in none of the futures visible to me do I display any signs of-"

 

"I thought you said you weren’t using your future vision right now?" Aubrey cut in, voice far too innocent. Fifty percent of the futures now showed him being brought to the lodge.

 

"I...said I was not looking at them too closely just yet, yes," he conceeded. Fifty three percent now. "But," he added, "I am still well able to look within a 24 hour timeframe." Forty seven percent.

 

"Right, right," Aubrey nodded. "Just not any further because it’s too overwhelming when you’re still so disoriented. I remember now!" She smiled, and Indrid didn’t need to check the immidiate futures _or_ the look on Duck’s face to know that the odds of him going straight home had just dropped exponentially.

 

Fine then.

  

Indrid sighed. "Yes, Aubrey Little, you remember correctly. Thank you, for that."

  

"Anytime!" She grinned. "Also, I call shotgun." With that, she pulled open the passanger’s door and hopped in, remembering just in time not to slam the door too loudly.

 

"I do believe our young friend has the right idea," Ned said. "Mr. Cold, if you’d be so kind," with that, Ned gestured to the back seat of the truck. Next to Duck. Naturally.

 

"...Of course," Indrid replied. Ned went around to get in the driver’s seat while Indrid got situated in the back, fumbling with the seatbelt for a moment before a pair of gentle hands reached over to click the buckle into place for him.

  

"You good, man?" Duck asked quietly, concern clear on his battered face. The truck’s interior light had turned off once Ned closed the driver’s door, but Indrid could still clearly make out the exhausted slump of Duck’s shoulders.

  

"Yes?" Indrid replied, matching his volume confusedly until the next few seconds flashed across his vision. "Oh, I see," he said just as Duck began to speak.

 

"Yeah, your hands are shaking pretty bad there. You sure you’re alright?"

 

Indrid laughed sharply, drawing a glance from Ned and Aubrey as the former of the two began driving down the park’s trail. He shot what he hoped was an appropriate expression for "everything is fine!" at them before lowering his voice to reply. "Duck Newton, you are asking me if I am alright after you not only slayed an abomination, but had an entire _tree_ fall on you. Two trees nearly! You will have to forgive me if I find your concern a bit humorous. Also, to answer your question, that happens sometimes when I get cold. Nothing sitting in a heated truck for a few minutes can’t fix." Duck’s gaze darted away from his own at that, a habit Indrid had noticed would occur any time the ranger was embarrassed.

 

"Oh, uh, yeah, guess that makes sense," he said. "It didn’t actually fall on me though, y’know. Just came pretty fucking close."

 

"Too close, if you ask me," Indrid said, turning to the window beside him to watch the trees go by. Their exchange had reached a natural stopping point, though Indrid realized a moment later that simply turning away might have seemed rude to someone who couldn’t see the futures. He weighed his options on whether or not to say anything, until an odd clicking sound caught his attention. It sounded suspiciously like—ah, yes. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed the seer’s suspicions.

  

"Aubrey Little, would you please turn the heater up?" Indrid asked casually, gaze returned to the forest. "It is a bit chilly back here."

  

"Huh? Oh, sure thing," she replied. "Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know where agent nosey—"

  

"He is asleep in his room," Indrid cut in. "So long as we are reasonably quiet there should be no issue."

 

"...That works," Aubrey said. The car stayed quiet as the heater’s steady rumble picked up a bit.

 

Right. Cutting people off was also impolite. Stars of Sylvain Indrid was out of practice. Before he could mull over his social faux paus any longer however, Indrid noticed that the click-click-click sound of Duck’s teeth chattering had returned. Strange, Aubrey was considering shrugging her jacket off and Ned had already tilted away the vent closest to him. Indrid was growing a bit groggy himself as the warmth of the heater settled in his bones, and so it took his increasingly muddled mind a moment to process the sudden shift in futures as something went amiss.

 

Oh my.

 

Indrid snapped out of his groggy state in an instant, speaking with barely concealed urgency as worry flooded his veins. "Ned Chicane, now would be a good time to, as people say, _step on it_. Duck Newton is going into shock."

 

...

 

The ride back to Amnesty Lodge passed in a blur for Duck. One minute he was in the back seat of his truck, bone-deep tired and aching in places he hadn’t known could ache, but still concious enough to worry when he saw Indrid’s shaking hands. The next, everything was muted, narrowed down to the chill that had crept through his veins so subtly he didn’t notice it until his teeth started chattering. His skin felt cool and clammy, even after someone asked if the heater could be turned up. _No, not, not someone,"_ he sluggishly thought to himself. _Indrid...Indrid’s in the car with me-us. Us ‘cause Ned’s drivin’ and Aubrey called shotgun._ Duck started to turn to look over at the seer, but a sharp pain in the back of his head stopped him short. Right, Aubrey’d scolded him about that. _Not my fault I forgot,_ he thought _. A lotta stuff was goin’ on, what with the bom-bom and the trees and the teeth and the big light- aww shit what even was that? I didn’t getta ask Indrid ‘bout that yet. ...Can’t believe he was just gonna go home after that light hit him too. We don’t even know what that was ABOUT. What if-what if it did, does, does? Yeah, does. What if it does somethin’ weird to ‘em? Can’t just "go home". What a doofus._

 

Thethought of saying that last bit out loud struck Duck as exceptionally funny, and he was about to do just that when a violent tremor shook his body, bringing him to the frightening realization that he was _very_   _cold_. His befuddled worry sharpened as the  tremors  continued and he went from “put on a sweater” cold to “something has gone pretty fucking pear-shaped” cold in what felt like a matter of seconds.

 

Duck became dimly aware  that his teeth were chattering, setting off alarm bells in his head as words like “hypovolemic shock” and “excessive blood loss” flashed across his mind. He was far, far too tired and cold to focus in on the meanings behind the words however, and the ranger only half heard his name being called as he closed his eyes to rest.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh shit—ah, ah beans. Did I forget to mention that this is just a really elaborate set up for Duck totally beefing it in the back of a forest ranger truck? 
> 
> Anyways. Up next, actual plot progression! And Mama and Barclay! 
> 
> (As always, thanks for reading!)


	3. (Self) Critical Theory

Indrid mentally berated himself for his carelessness. He _knew_ how quickly the futures could change. He was a royal seer for stars’ sake, it had been his job for _literal centuries_ to predict trouble—centuries spent being able to catch a diverging future almost before _its_ defining event could become a possibility, he might add.

 

And yet.

 

And yet here he and the pine guard were, seated anxiously in the lobby of Amnesty Lodge as Mama and Barclay worked to patch Duck Newton back together again. Aubrey spoke worriedly to Dani about the details of the hunt while Ned dimly considered taking a sip of the tea Barclay had given him. Indrid himself was dividing his attention evenly between three tasks, the first of which entailed keeping an eye on Agent Stern. Blessedly, the agent appeared to remain resting in his room for another hour and a half at least. Checking ahead for how long it would take before Mama or Barclay would come back up with news of Duck’s condition was his second task, his min filtering through hundreds of variations of: "He’s gonna be alright now. Still roughed up to hell and back—and definitely gonna need some shuteye before he’s fit for any kind of work (if it was Mama speaking)," or, "From what we can tell, he’s gonna be okay. Still really badly injured, so uh, Aubrey, no big hugs when you see him, but...yeah. He pulled through,"(if it was Barclay). The futures where they walked in stone faced and hollow eyed were growing rarer with every passing second, yet Indrid’s stomach remained in knots at the glimpses he’d inevitably seen. This brought Indrid to his third task: scolding himself for so often falling short as a seer ever since arriving on Earth.

 

Indrid acknowledged that he had fallen in love with this absurd, beautiful world; so much so that he tried time and again to intervene, to warn, to _help_ the people of this realm, despite the personal risk. He tried again and again, until his failures became too great to write off as anomalies. Until he came far, far too close to getting caught, and he was forced to confront the glaring reality that his fondness for this realm had made him uncoordinated and _weak_.

 

The seers who had trained him would be disgusted, appalled by the depths that he had sunken to in their eyes.

 

_Or perhaps,_ he considered, _they would be unsurprised_. The thought cast a cold, sickening weight that fell through Indrid’s gut like an anchor, and it took a conscious effort not to let himself go tumbling down that particular rabbit hole. There were more important matters to attend to now, such as the confounding number of futures (i.e., all of them) Indrid could see in which Duck Newton was, undoubtable, not entirely human. The moment the ranger had gone into shock the futures had begun rearranging themselves, and Duck’s...unexpected acquisitions were now set to make and appearance sooner rather than later. Which led to a whole new set of dilemmas, the first of which being how Indrid could best break the news to the rest of the Pineguard. There were a number of futures in which he simply described a few of his visions here and now, focusing solely on the appearance of Duck’s sylph-traits, which led to a variety of reactions ranging from disbelief, to fear, to angry exclamations of " _Why didn’t you mention this earlier?!"_ , to shock. Other futures showed him waiting until they went downstairs to see Duck in person, where the guards’ reactions depended largely on whether or not Duck had regained any level of consciousness. Indrid was slightly more inclined towards these futures, as they contained no risk of anyone... _excitable_ shouting in the lodge and alerting Agent Stern. Waiting until they entered the basement would be the better option, except for one issue: Thacker.

 

Indrid knew from the futures he’d seen immediately after leaving Kepler that something was deeply, deeply wrong with the recovered member of the pine guard. He was possessed by something that should not be here, something that was likely never meant to be so contained. Focusing in on the corrupted(?) man filled Indrid with a deep, mind numbing sense of dread, and filled his sight with shadows and warped snatches of sound he could not decipher. Not to mention, any time Indrid focused his sight on Thacker, he could not shake the sense that something was focusing _its_ sight on him return.

 

Madel— _Mama_ was already quite on edge regarding the situation, understandably so, and in a few worrying futures Indrid could see her react to Duck’s transformation...not well. Indrid was aware that his sight showed people at their best and at their worst, and so to pass any sort of judgement off possibility alone was unfair to the individual in question. But he would be lying if he said the unlikely futures where Mama reacted rashly or with suspicion didn’t make something furious and ugly burn in his chest. Especially in the futures where Duck was conscious enough to understand what was going on. A single scene from one future in particular caught in Indrid’s mind, the heart wrenching sight of Duck Newton, eyes brimming with disbelief and hurt when Mama flinched away from him, snapping something it was clear she regretted almost as soon as the words left her mouth. It was a very unlikely future...but not unlikely enough. These possibilities alone, the one’s in which accusations of corruption and un-trustworthiness sunk painfully in like daggers and forever weakened the pineguards’ faith in one another, were enough to sway Indrid back into telling Ned and Aubrey first, here in the lounge. He cleared his throat to get their attention.

 

"What’s up?" Aubrey asked.

 

"There is...something very important you both need to know about what happened today," Indrid began. The tone of his voice must have been far more telling than usual, because Dani quickly excused herself, telling Aubrey she was going to go feed Dr. Harris Bonkers. Ned had not looked up, gaze still seemingly fixed far into the distance, but a quick glance at the immediate futures told Indrid he was listening. He decided to start with the easy facts.

 

"It is not often that I am at a loss as to how best to phrase something. Seeing the infinite possibilities of future paths generally renders such a concept impossible, with the exception of certain...anomalies." Indrid paused, unpleasantly aware that none of the current futures would be pleasant. "However, over the past two weeks a bright light began clouding my sight whenever I peered too closely at the pineguards’ future, both as a collective group and as individuals." At this Ned did look up, expression a mixture of surprise and indignation.

 

"You’ve been _spying_ on us?" He glared, suddenly sitting straight up in his chair, cup of tea forgotten on the side table.

 

"No, Ned Chicane, I have _not_ been spying on you," Indrid quickly corrected. "I assure you, I have much better ways to pass the time than watching you scam gullible tourists or repaint a crepes truck. As it so happens, I have rarely glanced at the futures of anyone within a thirty mile radius of Kepler since the weeks immediately following the sinkhole."

 

"So what changed?" Ned asked, appearing somewhat mollified as he sunk back into his armchair.

 

"I...do not know," he admitted. "I hardly noticed it at first, but eventually the light grew bright enough to catch my attention and I realized I could see nothing of your trio’s futures beyond it." He frowned, remembering the annoyance it had caused him. "It was exceptionally frusturating, and more than a bit concerning given the way things went the last time I entered Kepler. I will admit, I was initially quite hesitant to get anywhere near this town so soon after being spotted."

 

"But you came back anyways," Aubrey pointed out.

 

"Well, yes," Indrid replied, frowning as he was interrupted yet again. Aubrey was pulling the conversation off course and they did not have time to waste.

 

"Was it because of the light, or because you saw Duck getting squished?"

 

"I-both?"

 

Aubrey smiled, and Indrid got the sense that she was implying something he did not have time to unpack at the moment.

 

"Look," he said. "What I am trying to tell you two is that, when the flash of light occurred in the forest earlier, every one of your futures changed _at once_. Every. Single. One. I cannot begin to stress to you how utterly unheard of such a thing is. I saw primarily Duck’s futures at first, likely due to his proximity to me and the fact that his interaction with the abomination acted as something of a catalyst, and...well. In every future, I saw that Duck—" Indrid paused as he felt a sudden tug at his awareness, one which meant that things in the near future were changing course once again. He was silent for several seconds before he whacked himself on the forehead with the palm of his hand. He really could not catch a break today.

 

"Umm, Indrid, are you alright?" Aubrey asked from her seat on the couch.

 

"As much as a seer can be," he replied. "There is no time for me to explain this the way I would have liked now, I’m afraid. Ned Chicane, Aubrey Little, listen to me closely. Your fellow pineguard has gotten caught in the middle of something very strange. I do not know why or how such an event came to be, and frankly I do not know that I care to find out. What you two need to know is that, right now, Barclay is on his way up the stairs to tell us that Duck has pulled through-" At this Aubrey and Ned both perked up considerably. " _But_ ," Indrid stressed, "It is not all "good news" per say. When my pendant swung through the odd mist emanating from the abomination earlier, a...reaction of sorts occurred. Two volatile elements were introduced unexpectedly, and the results were messy. Yes, like when you place a Mentos mint into a two-liter bottle of soda and call it a volcano." Aubrey put her hand down sheepishly just as she began to raise it. "I was not affected by the blast, but Duck Newton _most definitely_ was, as you shall both soon see. I am telling you this now because it is imperative that you do not let "Mama" become convinced that Ranger Newton is corrupted. You _cannot_ allow her doubts to morph into distrust, or it will spell disaster not only for him, but for everyone the pineguard protects. _Do you understand me?"_

 

Aubrey and Ned stared at him in dumbfounded silence for a moment, and Indrid resisted the urge to repeat himself as he saw they had some forty-three seconds before Barclay opened the door. Thankfully, the two pine guards nodded their assent without any further question. Glancing at the futures, Indrid decided it best to address the most prominent of their inquiries regardless.

 

"To answer your question," he said as Barclay reached the top stair, "No, I am not asking you to lie." So far as Indrid could tell, Duck was not being corrupted by his new attributes.

 

"Glad to hear it," Ned said under his breath as the door to the basement swung open. "Even if it is a waste of my skills."

 

"He’s awake," Barclay told them, looking haggard. "From what we can tell, he’s gonna be okay. Still really badly injured, so uh, Aubrey, no big hugs when you see him, but...yeah. He pulled through." Ned and Aubrey were on their feet in a flash, rushing to the stairs as Barclay held the door open for them. He looked back at Indrid, and was unsurprised when seer mimicked his next words.

 

**“Mama wants to talk to you.”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the short chapter, I've had a hectic last couple of weeks and figured a short update would be better than none. I'm aiming to update this fic at least once a week, so stay tuned. As always, thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> In the Indruck Discord server: hey guys want to hear the most ridiculous au I thought of-  
> *Two weeks later* This is longer than any essay I've written this semester.
> 
> I have no idea quite how long this story is going to be, but I have quite a few ideas for upcoming chapters. Please let me know what you think so far, comments bring me tremendous joy.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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